Damaged bus shelter in New street, Birmingham, after two pubs were bombed (Picture: PA)

A memorial to the victims of the Birmingham Bombing is seen in St. Philip’s Cathedral square (Picture: Getty Images)

Witness O said he’d given McLoughlan’s name to two police detectives while in HMP Winson Green just days after the bombings, but didn’t hear anything back.

The IRA bomber, who was being questioned by Lesley Thomas, the barrister representing nine of the bereaved families, said the men could not be arrested in an apparent reference to the Good Friday Agreement.